FAQs

We hope you find answers to your questions in our help files below. If you don't see
information on the topic you're looking for, please send us a note to support@opensitter.com. We'll get back to
you as soon as we can.

General Information

What is OpenSitter?

OpenSitter is a web site that helps parents connect and book time with babysitters in their social network and vice versa. Parents can connect with sitters they use and ones that their friends use, view their schedules and book time with them online. For sitters, we've built powerful scheduling tools that help you more easily share the times you want to babysit with parents you know and their good friends.

How do I get started?

Right now we're in a private alpha release. If you want to help us kick the tires and make OpenSitter better, just request an invite on the home page and we'll add you as soon as we can.

What technology does OpenSitter use?

OpenSitter is a scratch made, hand-crafted Ruby on Rails application.

Privacy & Security

How secure is this site?

We’ve partnered with one of the best names in online security, Entrust, to provide a secure site where your requests, availability and personal information are encrypted and shared only with the people you choose to share them with. We believe very strongly that your personal information should stay private and confidential.

Will you share my personal information with other companies?

Who can see my contact information?

Right now, only the people you have connected with through OpenSitter can see any information about you(contact or otherwise).

Will my profile information be visible in search engine results?

Not right now. In the future, we’re going to give you the option of letting search engines index and display your *public* profile. Before we do that, we’re going to make sure you have lots of controls over what types of information you want to make publicly available and whether you even want to have that public profile visible at all.

Questions from sitters...

Do I have to connect with parents I don't know?

Not at all. Think of OpenSitter as being similar to other social networking sites you may use, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. If you're a sitter and you want to expand the number of parents you sit for then by all means you should consider connecting with close friends of the parents you're already sitting for. But if you're happy with the number of families you sit for today, you don't need to accept any connection requests. We'll keep track of them for you so if you want to expand your parent network later, you can connect when you're ready.

Questions from parents...

Should I be worried about sharing my go-to sitters?

One of the biggest concerns we hear from parents is about giving up their go-to sitters. We absolutely understand that concern and we're working hard to build features that will help you keep first dibs on your sitters. But most of the time when we talk to parents, the first thing they tell us is that there's been a time very recently when they couldn't go somewhere because their go-to sitter wasn't available. OpenSitter goes a long way toward solving that problem for parents forever. By connecting with your friends and sharing your sitters you gain many more great sitters that your best friends are using today.

Do I have to connect with sitters I don't know?

Not at all. Just like other social networks you use, you can choose who you want to add to your OpenSitter network. If you simply want to use OpenSitter with the sitters you use today, that's perfectly fine. You may get requests to connect from sitters that your close friends use, but you certainly don't have to accept them. OpenSitter never makes any recommendations for who you should or should not connect with. That is 100% up to you.

Contact

How can I get in touch with you?

If you have any questions, just send us an email at support@opensitter.com We'll get back to you as quickly as we can - usually in a few hours.

Are you on Facebook or Twitter?

We are! In fact you'd be our new best friend if you would kindly like us on our Facebook page. You can also find us on Twitter @opensitter. We tweet about topics that parents, sitters and nannies should find most helpful. Think arts and crafts, health news, recall information, tips and much more. If you've read this far, you might also like our blog.

Still have questions?

If these answers aren't whetting your whistle, just send us a note to: